Namibia Seal Hunt Filmers, Jim Wickens And Bart Smithers, Convicted Of Trespassing

[Annces]

JOHANNESBURG — Two foreign journalists who were arrested in Namibia while filming the clubbing of seals were convicted Friday of entering a protected marine area without a permit.

British journalist Jim Wickens and his South African cameraman, Bart Smithers, appeared in a magistrates court in the coastal town of Swakopmund.

They were given the choice of 12 months in jail or a fine of 10,000 Namibian dollars each (about $1,200), along with a six-month suspended sentence, said Namibian police spokesman Angula Amulungu.

Their employer, the British investigative agency Ecostorm, has agreed to pay the fine, said spokesman Andrew Wasley.

In a matter the court did not consider, Wasley said the two men allege that the sealers attacked them.

The men were in Namibia to produce a documentary on the controversial seal hunt, which animal activists say is barbaric and outdated. Wasley said that Wickens and Smithers were filming near Namibia's Cape Cross Colony, on the isolated northern coast of the country on Thursday morning when sealers assaulted them.

"They were chased and attacked with the clubs used to kill the seals," Wasley said of the journalists.

Police arrived and arrested the journalists, who were detained for several hours in the town of Henties Bay before being released on bail. The attackers remain at large.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/17/namibia-seal-hunt-filmers_n_237903.html



Bart Smithers

Graphic pic below

[Nihil]

1. So much for the concept of "protection" then ...

> ... entering a protected marine area without a permit.

:puke: